Pop-Under Deception and Private Property

RogerRamjet98 writes "I was browsing the web today and I got hit with a pop-under ad. Annoying but no big deal, right? Wrong. This one managed to change my home page to (CT:Link removed. Why would we send these dicks traffic?) Which pretends to be yahoo, and is convincing enough to fool the average computer user, but is really a platform for launching more pop-under ads. Combine this with the AOL/WinXP news, and it makes me think that the settings on my computer ought to enjoy legal protection as private property: Changing them without my permission (such as adjusting my home page, or whatnot) should constitute assault or trespass." Or turn of JavaScript. Or don't run IE. But good luck on that trespass case. With a history of laws like the DMCA, Uncle Sam can only make it worse.

Comments

A similar incident

[bravehamster]

Something roughly along the same lines happened with UPS shortly after I quit working as an underpaid and overworked tech support for them. Their new software, Worldship (which customer were being told they had to upgrade to) installed IE 5.5, made it the default browser, deleted all the customers bookmarks, and set ups.com as the homepage, all without asking the customer. I was extremely glad I quit before this happened. Last I heard some people had filed a class action lawsuit, although I don't know where it went from there.